On this 9-day tour, you will visit Baikal’s most famous sites and get acquainted with the history of four different cultures inhabiting its shores. We will explore both western and eastern shores of Lake Baikal: “European” Irkutsk region and “Asian” Buryat Republic. You will be amazed how everything is changing around you, people, faces, nature, landscapes.

Open the curtain of the spiritual world of Lake Baikal: learn the principles of Buddhism, the basics of shamanism, the culture of the Buryats and Old Believers’ way of life in modern Russia.

As the world gets smaller, there’s a desire to go further – and there are few places as enchantingly far away as Yamal. This tour transports you deep into Siberia’s isolated Arctic region. ‘Yamal’ means ‘edge of the world’ in the language of the indigenous Nenets. The Nenets of Yamal carve out a unique way of life, seemingly at the limits of human tolerance. Yamal Peninsula was considered so inhospitable that Stalin built his prison camps here. Yet a strikingly colourful, rich and resilient culture has been preserved and relatively unchanged here for some 2,000 years. READ MORE

This tour will take place in the prime summer wildlife viewing season, you’ll experience the incredibly rich of flora, fauna and geology of the region. The tour kicks off in spectacular style with a flight over the Ksudach volcano, followed by several days observing the salmon fishing bears of Kurilskoye Lake in the Kronotsky Reserve. We plan a helicopter landing at the crater of the Mutnovsky volcano before heading further north to see the new lava cones of Tolbachik volcano in Klyuchevskoy Nature Park. We’ll also spend time in the settlement of Esso, staying overnight with nomadic reindeer herders in their summer camp in the mountains.

Millions of years of volcanic activity have carved Kamchatka into a place of strangely prehistoric, undulating landscapes. Seen from the air, stark lava fields, gaping craters and mountainous tundra contrast with lush forests and shimmering lakes and rivers and the endless blue depths of the Pacific Ocean. READ MORE

About 56th Parallel

56th Parallel is a travel company specialising in providing packaged tours and travel services in Russia.

Our goal is to redefine travel to Russia, focusing on creating the most rewarding experiences, which help travellers unfolds the soul of this exciting destination.